`Women are the glue that holds the culture together. It's how culture survives,` says Cora Hook, co-creator of `Never Done,` a play that opens Thursday at Touchstone and runs through April 8 -- just in time for Women's History Month. `Why aren't people talking about this?`

`Never Done` cast members and Hook's collaborators agree wholeheartedly. `Women are the axis,` says Peggy Pettitt, a New York performance artist. `They prepare the food for the family, create the festivities, provide support and keep the family together. ... This force behind civilization has been invisible, and we're trying to make it visible.`

Co-collaborator Haydee Cornfeld-Diez, a composer and choreographer, cites an example from her own life. `When my grandmother died, my father said there was no more headquarters,` she notes.

`Never Done` showcases three women from three different cultural backgrounds -- African American, Latino and Caucasian. The play weaves through several generations, blending female archetypes and real-life experiences. `It isn't a typical plot play,` says Hook. `It's more poetic.`

While all three cast members contributed personal recollections to the script, `Never Done` also is a story of the local Bethlehem community. Hook, Pettitt, Cornfeld-Diez and director Jennie Gilrain have been interviewing community members since they first thought of the idea for the play in July 1999, and residents of the Senior Center of Bethlehem were brought in to teach the group about doing laundry and chicken-plucking in the 1940s, as well as storytelling techniques.

`'Never Done' is unique because the material comes out of the community,` says Pettitt.

The interviews added something that actors often don't experience. `We met these people,` emphasizes Pettitt. `Some of the most poignant moments come out of the community voices.`

Adds Hook: `There's a lot of humor, too.`

The group interviewed long-time Bethlehem-area residents such as the Tellez and Martinez families and Ernest `Bubbles` Enix, as well as people from several generations and walks of life, including steelworkers and African-American professors at Lehigh University.

The inter-generational interviews, says Hook, `show what values were passed on, what ways have stayed the same and what changed.`

An exhibit in the Touchstone lobby will underscore the themes outlined in `Never Done.` It will include items that women have used in their work, such as antique housecleaning items and a clothesline with dish towels hanging on it, plus crafts created by women.

Though `Never Done` is not strictly an historical chronicle, says Hook, there are interesting historical aspects that the interviews uncovered. `The '40s were a very interesting time for women,` says Hook. `Opportunities came and then were taken away. It sowed the seeds for the liberation movements, both for women and other minorities.`

`Never Done` may be about women, but it also has garnered support from men. For example, costumer Remy Tissier contributed his support and stories. When an excerpt was presented to the local community, says French native Tissier with an accent, the men said, `It's something here that's important to be said, and they wanted to hear the women's stories.`

Tissier notes that other men also contributed, and that the process was not exclusionary. Pettitt chimes in: `It's encompassing. ... It's not a rally. It's women talking about women AND men.`

The actors and director laugh about the `blood, sweat and tears` involved in the collaborative effort. And all agree that co-creator and director Gilrain is an excellent listener.

`We don't always agree, but we always honor each other,` declares Cornfeld-Diez. `It requires sensitivity, an openness to enhance the process that includes others.`

And how does `Never Done` end?

The cast members laugh. `We don't know yet!` they assert.

But all of them say they hope the questions and issues raised by the play won't stop at the final curtain.

`We hope this opens a dialogue that continues,` says Hook. `This piece is actually a beginning. These are things that need to be told.`

`Never Done` will be performed at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday,Thursday through April 8 , and at 3 p.m. April 1 at Touchstone Theatre, 321 E. Fourth Street, Bethlehem. Tickets: $15 opening night, Friday and Saturday; $10 Thursday, Sunday and the April 1 matinee. 610-867-1689.